


Of Skin and Scales

by CottageGoblin



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Alternate Universe- Coliseum Setting, Captive Mythological Creatures, Intersex Species, Leon Understands Nothing, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Monsterfucking, More tags to be added, Naga!Leon, Naga!Raihan, No Actual Biology was Studied in the Making of this Fanfiction, Oviposition, Raihan Understands Consent!, molting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:48:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26218891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CottageGoblin/pseuds/CottageGoblin
Summary: Leon reigns as Champion, kept in captivity and fighting in the Coliseum for Emperor Rose's amusement. Taken from his natural habitat at a young age, he remembers little of his life before the Arena. He knows nearly nothing about what he is, or why his body responds in unusual ways in the presence of the newest challenger.Luckily, his new rival is more than willing to educate.
Relationships: Dande | Leon/Kibana | Raihan
Comments: 7
Kudos: 110





	Of Skin and Scales

Leon had been certain he was dying the first time one of the rings on his tail had swollen so large that the skin around it had split and peeled. The physician in the Coliseum’s employ has assured his caretakers that the process was natural. He was “molting”, apparently. And as the dead skin sloughed off in sheets where he had rubbed his tail against the trees and rocks in his enclosure, seeking some form of relief, his caretakers had chattered excitedly about the implications of having raised a Naga in captivity to adulthood.

After he clawed his third caretaker in as many days, they learned to leave their pained, moody captive to molt in peace.

By the end of his molt, he gained almost a foot in length. The once three-inch ring at the juncture of his tail and his abdomen had expanded about ten inches. He was relieved to find that nothing much changed afterwards, except for a strange cramping and heaviness that settled into that area every few months. He excused it as indigestion or over-exertion when it occurred, and thought nothing more of the molting once it was over.

A year later, he was studying the people in the courtyard through the glass panels of his enclosure, when his lower belly began to itch. He scratched it idly with the tip of his tail, but turned from his pile of berries when the action caused a familiar burning rawness. Alarmed, he noticed another ring of his tail, the one directly below the expanded band, was now inflamed.

The Emperor was expecting him to battle a prized Minotaur at the end of the week. He couldn’t afford to molt again, as he was sure the pain would cost him his victory (notwithstanding his desire to avoid the process in general).

But his caretakers did not seem disappointed to delay the match (a sentiment he did not share) when, a week later, the skin on his belly seemed fit to burst but would not peel no matter how he rubbed against the rough bark of his Pecha tree.

After a very unpleasant month, the end of the process left him much the same as the last time: a foot longer with a new, thick band around his middle. He gloomily surmised that this would be happening again, and likely eight more times, as he had been born with ten slender rings where his belly met his tail. He would flatten himself in his cage, tail-tip lashing, when the two bands would throb in tandem, feeling similar to hunger pangs but with no obvious way to sate it.

And so his life continued as the captive Champion of the Coliseum: preening his purple and gold scales in his lush garden, bathing in his waterfall and drying himself on the rocks, and hunting for berries and the creatures his caretakers occasionally tossed into the enclosure to entertain him. When a worthy opponent arose to challenge him, the gate at the back of the cage creaked open, and he slithered into the arena to annihilate them for Emperor Rose’s amusement, basking in the screams of the crowd around him. Then he returned to his cage to preen the gore from his scales again.

But in the year that his fourth band popped, it all changed. He reared up in the arena, coiling his tail and flexing for the crowd. The gate at the other end of the Coliseum slid open and his heart pounded with building bloodlust. A low hiss of excitement escaped his lips.

His eyes widened as his challenger emerged from the shadows. Blue and red scales glinted in the sunlight, accentuated by dark skin and shiny white fangs.

His rival hissed back at him.

\--------------------------------------

Leon’s claws caught on the grime at the edge of his scales, grooming himself with his usual fastidiousness though his thoughts lingered elsewhere.

He had never lost before.

That’s not to say he had “lost” the match today. For unknown reasons, the Emperor had interrupted the match just as he and the other Naga – Raihan, they’d announced him as- had wrapped their tails around each other, primed to constrict.

His skin prickled hotly at the memory of their scales sliding together, sinuous muscles straining as each struggled to overpower the other. He shook his maned head and slid into the cool embrace of his pond. Of course he was agitated after a match like that.

It had been obvious that his rival hadn’t really been trying. Leon suspected the other might have beaten him if he’d actually tried.

Leon hadn’t lost, but he hadn’t won either. So he sulked in his pool, washing his hair and waiting to see if his usual post-match treat would be shoved through the gate. He could use something to strangle. But his caretakers had never waited so long to deliver his prize before. The sky through the glass was painted in pink and amber clouds; the sun had rolled over in the sky to slumber. He tsked between his fangs.

The tip of his tail vibrated as he contemplated whether Raihan had received a treat for his performance in the arena. The other hardly fought. He would force Leon to attack first as he danced just out of reach, bright eyes keen as he studied Leon’s movement. Leon has thrilled in the beginning, thinking his first battle against one of his own kind was going to give him an actual challenge. Raihan seemed an intelligent adversary, not just a strong but stupid brute.

He wasn’t wrong about that. Raihan clearly grasped strategy. He would anticipate Leon’s attacks and gracefully slide out of the way, but not before some part of Raihan’s tail would touch him. ( _Stroke him_ , his brain supplied unhelpfully.)

So Leon had circled his adversary, getting steadily more confused and flustered, until without warning Raihan had pulled their upper bodies flush and twined their tails together. The move startled Leon; he always attacked with his tail first, keeping his torso out of range as he whipped and strangled his opponents. In an instant Raihan gained the upper hand, and the two had been grappling with their full bodies when Emperor Rose intervened.

It didn’t help that Raihan was nearly four feet longer. Leon tried not to contemplate just how close Raihan had come to pinning him. He shifted uncomfortably. To make matters worse, that familiar heaviness had settled into his gut. He undulated in the water, allowing the smooth rocks at the bottom of the pool to massage the underside of his belly He’d discovered previously that while it didn’t make the soreness go away, it softened the intensity.

The moon had risen in an ink black sky when he emerged from the pool. He tried to ignore the rhythmic tightening of his belly. The rocks hadn’t helped at all; it ached worse than usual. Maybe he had pulled something in his fight with Raihan. He was coiling his tail to prepare for sleep when the chains of his gate clinked.

He perked, hoping to hear panicked scurrying in the corridor. Maybe he hadn’t been forgotten after all. The door continued to rise and his brow pinched. How big was this thing they were giving him? They usually opened it just enough for the creature to be herded through and only opened it all the way for him. He had never been called from his enclosure so late at night.

Interested, he began to unwind, then froze at the sound of scales on cobblestone. No. No, they would not…

A sharp fang winked at him in the moonlight as Raihan emerged. He smirked as he slid into the enclosure, head tilted and charmingly framed by the red frills behind his ears. Leon gaped at him, too startled to move, chest slowly puffing in indignation and alarm. The clang of the gate shutting stirred him from his stupor.

“You shouldn’t be in here. You need to leave!” His voice came out higher than intended. Raihan glanced at the closed gate and raised a brow. “Who let you in, anyways?”

If Raihan was perturbed by Leon’s posturing, it didn’t show as he moved deeper into the enclosure, inspecting the waterfall and small pool. “Who here has the authority to do so, Champ?” At Leon’s obvious confusion, he huffed a laugh. “I’m here because your ‘Emperor’ desired me to be.”

Well then. Leon wasn’t sure how to dispute that, and his fangs pricked at his bottom lip as he contemplated the implications. Raihan continued to wander his home, lightly touching and sniffing at things. Leon finally groused, “I don’t normally fight in my enclosure.”

Raihan leered at him then, eyes glowing in the dark with emotion that Leon didn’t fully understand. He squirmed as a strange, liquid heat pooled in his gut. Raihan noticed the movement; he swayed closer to where Leon sat coiled.

“I don’t think he intended me to fight you,” the taller Naga purred. Leon leaned away, but Raihan moved as fluidly as he had in the arena and wrapped an arm around Leon’s lower back. “But we can do that first, if you’d like.”

Their torsos were touching, and Leon realized he was nearly panting as every intake of air pushed his chest into Raihan’s. He knew he should strike out, uncoil himself so he could move to a more optimal position, but his body trembled at the onslaught of feelings coursing through him. He needed… he needed _something_.

Raihan gazed down at him with that fang glinting, slitted pupils focused intently as he studied Leon’s face. He trailed his hand up and down Leon’s spine.

“You have no idea what I’m talking about.”

It was a statement, not a question, but Leon still shook his head in response. “Ah,” Raihan’s breath puffed out over Leon’s lips as his expression softened into something contemplative and gentle. Leon could feel the weight of that simple answer; Raihan had inferred something from it that he wasn’t sure he’d intended to reveal. But Raihan’s large hand suddenly brushed from his back to the heated band at the base and Leon could hardly think as his tail coiled tighter, his scales sliding together as his body chased something he didn’t know how to give it.

“You’re so tempting,” Raihan murmured. His tongue flicked out and licked Leon’s cheek, causing him to blush. Leon didn’t understand- tempting to fight? tempting to eat??- but right now, he didn’t care if they fought as long as Raihan twined that long tail around his and kept holding them close. As if in response to his thoughts, Raihan pulled away. “But not tonight, Champ.”

The air felt horribly chilled against the heated skin where Raihan had been pressed. Blinking slowly, Leon watched with growing agitation as Raihan also began to coil himself to sleep for the night. His body ached for something, and he was sure now that the other knew how to fix it.

He hadn’t won the match because of Raihan. He hadn’t gotten his treat because of Raihan. And now, his whole lower body was as hot as sun-baked stone, and he was fairly certain it was because of Raihan.

And Raihan had the audacity to go to sleep?!

“You can’t just barge into my home like this!” ( _You can’t just leave me like this._ ) “Why did the Emperor send you anyways?”

Raihan settled his upper body over the cozy coil he had made with his thick, vibrant tail. “I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to be mating you right now.” When Leon didn’t respond and continued to look lost, he smiled wryly and lowered his voice to a devastating huskiness. “Believe me, I want nothing more than to wrap myself around you and press you into the dirt as you writhe.”

Leon shuddered at the visual and as the warmth in his belly grew, he considered challenging the other to see if he was strong enough to do it (Leon was delightfully certain he could).

“But you don’t even know what you’re asking for, what it is that you’re wanting from me, and I went and got you too heat-addled to know if it’s _just_ your body that wants it,” Raihan shook his head, his frills settling back against the twisted ridges on his skull. He laid his head against his coiled tail and slipped one eye shut. “Sleep if you can, Champ, and let it wear off. We’ll talk in the morning when you’re more… settled.”

Though Leon was incredibly agitated (which was his usual state when his body behaved this way), he could admit to some anticipation to find out what exactly was going on from someone who might know, and even a little bit of appreciation to the other for not pushing him somewhere he wasn’t sure he was ready to go. He’d not seen another Naga since he’d been taken for the Emperor, and while Raihan was… irritating, he wasn’t that unpleasant. His eyes trailed down the intricate pattern of the other’s scales and his stomach clenched.

Not unpleasant, indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> I fully blame my descent into this lovely madness on a couple of authors: Shamusiel, thepizzasitter, and iroiroriro, specifically. I was going to cite which particular stories inspired this, but eh. If you haven't read their content before, go read all of it!
> 
> Please understand: this is going to be smut. No actual biology. Just smut. That said, I am working on a handy-dandy chart of how things work so things flow smoothly in writing it (and praying my spouse never asks me what the hell this document is), but none of this is based on how things actually work.
> 
> At this point, I'm not sure which chapter the fun stuff is going to start in - it was going to be this chapter until Raihan was like, "Nah, consent". And somehow that spiraled into a chapter or more of backstory and bonding. So yeah. We will get there eventually. Yay, snake!sex....... I'm not sure I even -want- to look up how snakes -actually- procreate but like.
> 
> I'm curious now.


End file.
